re: How does a family do it financially

We worked to get out of debt before having kids, but we still had a pretty fancy house. A few years ago, we sold it and bought a smaller house. We have now been mortgage free for several years. It makes life a lot less stressful especially with inflation and all the craziness in the world. We don't live to keep up with the Joneses and just try to live a simple life

We lived on one fairly average income for many years so I could be a stay at home mom. When I went back to work, we have used my income to beef up retirement and college savings. We also decided to send our kids to private school in 2020 to keep them from falling behind.